


Confrontation (Afterimage)

by neomaumbra



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Canon, Episode: s07e03 Afterimage, Not Canon Compliant, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 04:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14204919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neomaumbra/pseuds/neomaumbra
Summary: Alternate version of how the confrontation scene in Garak's shop between Ezri & Garak probably should have gone down. From the episode "Afterimage." Some canon dialogue used. It's noted when the new dialogue begins.





	Confrontation (Afterimage)

**Author's Note:**

> How I, as a psychology student, believe this conversation would have really went down.

_**[ canon dialogue ]** _

**Ezri:** Garak? I thought you were going to stay in the holo-suite for a while. 

**Garak:** I got tired of staring at a fake landscape, pretending I was outside. No, no, no, work is the answer. My father always used to say that people should throw themselves into their work. Do your chores, Elim. I told you to do your chores. 

**Ezri:** And if you didn't? What would he do to you? 

**Garak:** Oh, no, no, no. Please, don’t start. Spare me your insipid psychobabble. I’m not some quivering neurotic who feels sorry for himself because his daddy wasn’t nice. You couldn’t begin to understand me.

**Ezri:** I’d like to try.

**Garak:** Oh, I’m sure you would. You’d like nothing more than to pry into my personal affairs. Well, I’m not interested in dissecting my childhood. I only want to save my people from the Dominion. I don’t need someone to walk in here and hold my hand. I want someone to help me get back to work. And you, my dear, aren’t up to this task. I mean, look at you. You’re pathetic. A confused child trying to live up to a legacy left by her predecessors. You’re not worthy of the name Dax. I knew Jadzia. She was vital, alive. She owned herself. And you? You don’t even know who you are. How dare you presume to help me? You can’t even help yourself. Now get out of here before I say something _unkind._

**_[ start of new dialgue ]_ **

**Ezri:** You know something? Stop, right there. Let’s talk about that for a moment, shall we?

**Garak:**  Excuse me?

**Ezri:**  That. What you just said. ‘How would I presume to help you?’ For starters, it doesn’t sound like you want help at all. In fact, I think you’re afraid of it.

**Garak** Me? Afraid of you? My dear you clearly need more help than even I thought.

**Ezri:** Maybe afraid of me. Or maybe… afraid of what my being here means. I know it’s not what you’d like to hear. Ben gave me your file from Starfleet Intelligence. You, the heir to the Obsidian Order. Exiled by his own father.

**Garak** How dare you even suggest–!

**Ezri:** And talking about Jadzia and the symbionte. Who she was. How she owned herself. How your father owned himself. How you feared you’d never lived up to his name.

**Garak:** I won’t listen to anymore of this nonsense! You know nothing about me!

**Ezri:** But I do. You said it all, yourself. ‘A confused child, trying to live up to a legacy left by his predecessors.’ And looking to a counselor for help? I’m sure your father would have sent you packing if you’d ever even suggested something like that under his roof. You’re afraid that if you get better with my help, you’ll have proved him right, all along. That you can’t even help yourself. So you’d rather not get better at all. How weak and helpless you must feel. How alone and trapped and in the dark, like some quivering neurotic who feels sorry for himself because his daddy wasn’t nice… I’m sorry… Perhaps I shouldn’t’ve said anything… It was _unkind_.

 

* * *

 

[ tumblr gif set available [here](https://toboldlyblahblahblah.tumblr.com/post/172572699789/how-i-as-a-psychology-student-believe-this). ]

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Ezri would have been struggling finding herself and getting back to her ability to provide counsel to others while suffering through so much stress and confusion herself, but that does not mean that all her training would have suddenly rushed out of her skull.
> 
> Now, in later episodes where we see Ezri analyzing her dreams, it’s clear that they’re writing her as a Freudian psychologist. Now, Freud was, in my opinion, mostly just a sex-obsessed, creepy, old cocaine addict, but he did make a few relevant contributions to the field of psychology, a handful of which are still in use by therapists today. So the moment Garak snapped at her, Ezri would have recognized it as classic Freudian projection – a term for when patients, as a defense mechanism, attributes their own thoughts, feelings, and motivations to another person. [x]
> 
> I love Ezri, and I will never forgive the writers here for making her seem incompetent in this moment rather than easily seeing through Garak’s defenses. This could have been a powerful scene for both Ezri and Garak, but instead they have her fall for his bluff and run off crying. I can’t believe that any Dax wouldn’t have jumped down Garak’s throat here, even if it wasn’t the most professional reaction to have. And, for another thing, as a war-hardened ex-spy, a blunt and cold reply like this would have likely actually been helpful to Garak. (And as we know from his later canon dialogue with Kira regarding Demar, Garak both understands & respects the use of good, ol’ fashion, ironic timing.) What he needed here was a cold, hard psychological bitch slap! And that’s exactly what a trained psychologist like Ezri Dax would and should have done. 
> 
> End rant.


End file.
